After eBay fakes

The Internet may not be completely lawless, but it does facilitate infringement of intellectual property laws on an fantastic scale. How do you stop infringement when it is occurring on such a huge scale? Some companies have gone after the intermediaries such as eBay and Facebook, which provide the platform on which users can exchange goods and content so freely.

As the law stands, however, the middle men are generally immune from continuing provided they remove infringing material from their sites as soon as they are notified of any potential infringement. This sound like a sensible approach. It gives IP owners a quick and efficient mechanism for protecting their rights without placing heavy restrictions on popular sites such as eBay. But there is a catch. IP owners keen to prevent copycatting of their products, brands and ideas are often unknown that asserting what they consider to be genuine rights may give rise to responsibility.

The rationale is: an accusation that a business has infringed lP rights may result in that business stopping to sell the allegedly infringing item. In the UK, the law on patents, trade marks and designs makes such allegations actionable.

Take eBay's Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) programme. Under VeRO, you can notify eBay, via an online form, that there is material on the auction site infringing your intellectual property rights, such as a design right or a patent eBay's standard response is to remove the highlighted material without - understandably, for reasons of expediency - any investigation of the merits of the claim. This immediately deprives the seller of his point of sale. EBay is contractually entitled to do this, but what if the VeRO notification is unfounded and there is no infringement?

The programmes such as VeRO are therefore a double-edged sword: at first sight, they are useful tools for IP owners to have infringing material removed from the Internet. But unsuspecting IP owners can find themselves on the receiving end of an injunction or damages claim.

This puts the UK out of line with other countries in Europe and elsewhere, where no such provisions apply. For the time being, lP owners should be cautious about notifying an ISP of alleged infringement.

Oct 18, 2007 Times Online

Vocabulary:

▪scale [skeil] – n. масштаб, шкала

▪expediency [ɪk'spi:dɪən(t)sɪ] – n. расширение

▪investigation [ɪnvestɪ'geɪʃ(ə)n] – n. раccледование

▪highlighted ['haɪlaɪtid] – adj.выделенный

▪restriction [rɪ'strɪkʃ(ə)n] – n. запрет

▪elsewhere [els'wɛə] – adv. где угодно, в другом месте

▪lawless ['lɔ:ləs] – adj. противозаконный, преступный

▪infringement [ɪn'frɪnʤmənt] – n. нарушение

▪immune [ɪ'mju:n] – n. (system) иммунная система;